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The last 5 for today, I'll be back tomorrow with another 15 and finish the presentation the 2nd with the final 15. Happy new year everyone!
35. The Terminator
Director: James Cameron
Points: 908
Year rank: #7 of 1984
Voters: 9
Fans: Stephan (8), beefsupreme (14), RockyRaccoon (19)
Haters: Antonius (63)
Comment(s): First R rated film I ever saw. (BillAdama)
34. Stop Making Sense
Director: Jonathan Demme
Points: 910
Year rank: #4 of 1984
Voters: 8
Fans: John (6), Henrik (9), Petri (18), Stephan (24)
Haters: Greg (66), antonius (69)
Comment(s): Tough to rank this, cause it's a great concert, but how do you compare that to other films? (BillAdama)
33. Sans Soleil
Director: Chris Marker
Points: 910
Year rank: #10 of 1983
Voters: 5
Fans: BillAdama (11), Greg (18)
Haters: None
Comment(s): Easily the highest ranked film that finished 10th in its year. (Stephan)
32. The Right Stuff
Director: Philip Kaufman
Points: 913
Year rank: #4 of 1983
Voters: 7
Fans: RockyRaccoon (5), Petri (21)
Haters: Stephan (60), Greg (71)
Comment(s):
31. Blood Simple
Director: Joel Coen
Points: 919
Year rank: #3 of 1984
Voters: 10
Fans: BillAdama (10), Petri (16), Greg (19), beefsupreme (20)
Haters: RockyRaccoon (59), Stephan (69)
Comment(s): The Coen's first and although you can see they do have talent, for me, it's one of their least interesting films. (Gillingham)
I love that Damnation is still in even though it's probably one of the 3-voters.
3 very high votes, apparently.
30. Shoah
Director: Claude Lanzmann
Points: 919
Year rank: #9 of 1985
Voters: 3
Fans: Greg (9), antonius (14)
Haters: None
Comment(s):
29. Amadeus
Director: Milos Forman
Points: 921
Year rank: #6 of 1984
Voters: 10
Fans: John (4), Michel (11)
Haters: Greg (79)
Comment(s):
28. Nostalghia
Director: Andrei Tarkovsky
Points: 924
Year rank: #8 of 1983
Voters: 5
Fans: Greg (3), BillAdama (9), Gillingham (25)
Haters: Michel (71), Stephan (86)
Comment(s):
27. Fitzcarraldo
Director: Werner Herzog
Points: 924
Year rank: #3 of 1982
Voters: 6
Fans: Greg (10), Gillingham (24), BillAdama (24)
Haters: None
Comment(s):
26. Nuovo Cinema Paradiso [Cinema Paradiso]
Director: Giuseppe Tornatore
Points: 931
Year rank: #6 of 1988
Voters: 8
Fans: Stephan (3), RockyRaccoon (6)
Haters: BillAdama (55), Petri (69), Greg (85)
Comment(s):
25. A Short Film About Killing
Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski
Points: 935
Year rank: #8 of 1988
Voters: 7
Fans: antonius (6), Michel (12), Greg (24)
Haters: Henrik (57)
Comment(s): Great essay on the death penalty, but I think I like the nonlinear mashing in the Decalogue version better. (BillAdama)
24. This Is Spinal Tap
Director: Rob Reiner
Points: 937
Year rank: #2 of 1984
Voters: 10
Fans: Henrik (7), beefsupreme (8), John (15), Stephan (19)
Haters: antonius (60)
Comment(s):
23. Back to the Future
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Points: 941
Year rank: #1 of 1985
Voters: 10
Fans: Petri (8), John (9), Henrik (12), Stephan (15), RockyRaccoon (18)
Haters: antonius (55), Gillingham (60), Michel (61)
Comment(s): I watched this one over and over when I was a kid. (BillAdama)
The first #1 of the yearly polls shows up despite two others from the same year still being in the running. (Stephan)
22. Das Boot
Director: Wolfgang Petersen
Points: 951
Year rank: #2 of 1981
Voters: 7
Fans: Gillingham (11), Petri (12), Henrik (14), Stephan (20), antonius (24)
Haters: Greg (73)
Comment(s):
21. Kárhozat [Damnation]
Director: Bela Tarr
Points: 952
Year rank: #9 of 1987
Voters: 3
Fans: BillAdama (2), Gillingham (5)
Haters: None
Comment(s): I'm happy and a bit surpised this one made it to the finals at all. The cinematography is really outstanding, magnificent black and white. Nothing much happens in this film, but what you get to see is interesting enough anyway. (Gillingham)
This was the first Tarr I saw, before I knew who he was. His ability to bring a quietly resonant beauty to absolute despair is one of a kind. (BillAdama)
The last and highest ranked of the films with 3 voters, and also the highest ranked #9 of the year. (Stephan)
20. Zelig
Director: Woody Allen
Points: 955
Year rank: #1 of 1983
Voters: 9
Fans: Antonius (11), Petri (13), Michel (15), Henrik (21), BillAdama (23)
Haters: Greg (77)
Comment(s):
19. Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
Director: Steven Spielberg
Points: 968
Year rank: #1 of 1981
Voters: 11
Fans: RockyRaccoon (1), Stephan (5), beefsupreme (10), Michel (16)
Haters: Henrik (55), Gillingham (56)
Comment(s): Only the second personal #1, indicating the difference 1 voter can make with only 11 voters. (Stephan)
18. The Thing
Director: John Carpenter
Points: 973
Year rank: #4 of 1982
Voters: 10
Fans: beefsupreme (1), Greg (17), BillAdama (18), Antonius (20), Henrik (23)
Haters: Michel (62)
Comment(s):
17. Ran
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Points: 982
Year rank: #3 of 1985
Voters: BillAdama (6), Stephan (9), Gillingham (15), Michel (19)
Fans: Henrik (51)
Haters:
Comment(s): Kurosawa's biggest movie. It all looks great and impressive, but I think the focus is a bit too much on the grand scale and less on what actually happens during the story. Still one of his best films. (Gillingham)
Best Shakespeare adaptation ever. (BillAdama)
16. Fanny och Alexander [Fanny & Alexander]
Director: Ingmar Bergman
Points: 988
Year rank: #2 of 1982
Voters: 8
Fans: Gillingham (8), Henrik (11), Antonius (15), BillAdama (15), Michel (21)
Haters: Stephan (61)
Comment(s): If a ripened director like Bergman takes as much time for a film as was the case for this one, the result is bound to be very intruiging. Do yourself a favor by watching the long (about 5 hour) version. (Gillingham)
Great show Stephan and great results (my top 5 is still in the game).
Very pleased to see Varjoja paratiisissa finished in top 50.
It's a bit weird to see that I hate movies like Offret, Repo Man or Purple Rose of Cairo (I definitely don't) but the quality of the finalists were so high that those were in my bottom half (bottom 30 is a bit big for haters section).
Right Stuff (#21) was the best movie I discovered because of this poll. Still haven't seen many of the most interesting movies (Shoah, Damnation etc.). With Bela Tarr movies looks like I'm always late (Finally I've seen Werkmaister hermoniak, Satan tango, Man from London and Turin Horse on big screen (in Film Archive and Espoo Cine festival) but not Damnation.
I also borrowed Caddyshack DVD from my friend couble of days ago. So John I'm definitely going to watch your #1.
Michelle Pfeiffer in the cover of Scarface is so haunting and daunting. Haven't seen that cover before (always just Pacino).
Just back home in The Netherlands from England. I'm glad I'm here in time for the last 15 films. Great work Stephan!
Nice one-two punch on Kárhozat, Bill.
Yeah, 'Haters' is stretching it a little bit. I for one don't hate any of the films in competition, and I'm ambivalent about only 10-15 as well. Still, I think it's a fun statistic so I'll keep it in. Just read 'haters' as 'people who ranked this film pretty low'.
Btw, throughout the unveiling I have lowered the requirement for making it to the 'Haters' section, which is now at anything below 50th place for the final 25 films. Again, haters is way too strong a word but it is one that instantly covers the concept and is better than "Not fans" in my opinion.
15. Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
Director: Irvin Kershner
Points: 993
Year rank: #4 of 1980
Voters: 11
Fans: RockyRaccoon (4), Stephan (6), John (7), Gillingham (17), Antonius (17)
Haters: Petri (58), Greg (65)
Comment(s):
14. Do The Right Thing
Director: Spike Lee
Points: 1000
Year rank: #1 of 1989
Voters: 10
Fans: RockyRaccoon (3), Greg (5), John (14), Antonius (16), Michel (20)
Haters: Henrik (53), Stephan (62)
Comment(s):
13. Raging Bull
Director: Martin Scorsese
Points: 1003
Year rank: #3 of 1980
Voters: 10
Fans: Stephan (4), Greg (6), RockyRaccoon (12), Gillingham (23), Michel (24)
Haters: None
Comment(s):
12. Tonari no totoro [My Neighbor Totoro]
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Points: 1028
Year rank: #2 of 1988
Voters: 8
Fans: Henrik (1), Petri (1), Antonius (10), Greg (12)
Haters: BillAdama (54), RockyRaccoon (58)
Comment(s): A well made film, not that age appropriate for me. (BillAdama)
Henrik put this film in the lead with the third list, but it didn’t stay there for very long. (Stephan)
11. Idi I Smotri [Come And See]
Director: Elem Klimov
Points: 1034
Year rank: #4 of 1985
Voters: 8
Fans: Gillingham (2), Antonius (2), Petri (4), BillAdama (21), Stephan (25)
Haters: None
Comment(s): Most of the things that happen in this film are really horrible, but that´s what makes the impact as big in the end. No romanticising, just plain gruesome attrocities seen through the somewhat psychedelic view of a young boy. (Gillingham)
The great thing about this film is the facial expressions. (BillAdama)
The top 10 will include some quotes from critics.
10. Crimes and Misdemeanors
Director: Woody Allen
Points: 1039
Year rank: #2 of 1989
Voters: 9
Fans: BillAdama (3), Henrik (6), antonius (9), RockyRaccoon (10), Petri (24), Michel (25)
Haters: Stephan (58)
Comment(s): I keep seeing all these films from the 30s and 40s where somebody does something evil and then destroys himself with guilt. This film is the answer to that, this is how it really works, and has a very cynical matter of fact discussion about the mechanisms behind our moral memory. 'If Hitler had won we'd have a very different understanding of the Holocaust'. (BillAdama)
Critic: The movie generates the best kind of suspense, because it's not about what will happen to people—it's about what decisions they will reach. (Roger Ebert)
9. Down By Law
Director: Jim Jarmusch
Points: 1044
Year rank: #2 of 1986
Voters: 10
Fans: Greg (2), Michel (4), Petri (7), John (10), Gillingham (10), beefsupreme (19)
Haters: BillAdama (61), Antonius (66)
Comment(s): The beginning of the film with Tom Waits' music in the background is superb. (Gillingham)
Critic: The excitement comes from the realization that we are seeing a true film maker at work, using film to create a narrative that couldn't exist on the stage or the printed page of a novel. (Vincent Canby)
I think we have made a great list!
Should we or should we not guess the order of the top films?
Feel free to venture some guesses as to the order of the top 6.
8. Hotaru no haka [Grave of the Fireflies]
Director: Isao Takahata
Points: 1067
Year rank: #1 of 1988
Voters: 9
Fans: Henrik (2), Petri (3), BillAdama (7), Stephan (10), Gillingham (13), Antonius (21)
Haters: Greg (75)
Comment(s): Despite the fact that not many animated films made it through, two of the ones that did, did exceptionally well. (Stephan)
Critic: An emotional experience so powerful that it forces a rethinking of animation. (Roger Ebert)
7. Once Upon A Time in America
Director: Sergio Leone
Points: 1084
Year rank: #5 of 1984
Voters: 9
Fans: Stephan (1), Gillingham (7), John (12), BillAdama (12), Antonius (13), Greg (14), Henrik (19)
Haters: None
Comment(s): The only film in the top 10 that wasn’t either #1 or #2 of its year; #5 in fact. (Stephan)
Critic: Leone is less interested in arousing an audience's easier emotions than in presenting, at a dispassionate distance, the horror of two men warily walking toward each other on a tightrope suspended above the snake pit of their , deepest compulsions. (Richard Corliss)
No way Blade Runner is going to win!
6. Himmel
5. Elephant
4. Blade
3. Paris
2. Shining
1. Cocktail
The most surprising film near the top for me is Down By Law. I guess I just don't connect with Jarmusch's style at all.
I agree Blade Runner is probably going to win. It's awesome Wenders and Lynch did so well.
@Petri
You saw Turin Horse? Jealous.
Have you seen Family Nest?
6. The Shining
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Points: 1089
Year rank: #1 of 1980
Voters: 10
Fans: Petri (2), Henrik (3), Gillingham (4), Michel (9), Greg (16), beefsupreme (21), Antonius (25)
Haters: None
Comment(s): Both predictions were pretty far off with regard to The Shining. (Stephan)
Critic: As a ghost story and adaptation of the Stephen King novel, it's largely a failure. On the other hand, as an example of directorial bravura and as a study of madness and the unreliable narrator, it's a brilliant success. (James Berardinelli)
5. The Elephant Man
Director: David Lynch
Points: 1095
Year rank: #2 of 1980
Voters: 9
Fans: Antonius (3), Michel (5), RockyRaccoon (8), Henrik (10), Petri (11), Stephan (12)
Haters: None
Comment(s):
Critic: What we eventually see underneath this shell is not 'the study in dignity' that Ashley Montagu wrote about, but something far more poignant, a study in genteelness that somehow suppressed all rage. (Vincent Canby)
I wouldn't quite agree with that take on The Elephant Man. I don't see it as a study on dignity and genteelness (Maybe a little of a study on the former and satire on the latter), but more a study on the superego, and the limits of the superego when our intellectual decency conflicts with our natural reflexive aversion.
As viewers we know he's a human being and removed from the situation, that he deserves to be treated as an equal, but meeting him in real life, could we really suppress our disgust? Most people couldn't, and if they do, the writing is on the wall that it will not last forever.
Agreed, not the greatest quote I used, but it's a little thought provoking at least.
4. Paris, Texas
Director: Wim Wenders
Points: 1110
Year rank: #1 of 1984
Voters: 10
Fans: Michel (1), Henrik (4), BillAdama (8), Greg (11), Gillingham (14), Petri (17), John (18), Stephan (18), antonius (18)
Haters: beefsupreme (37)/44
Comment(s): Very well shot and the music by Ry Cooder is great. (Gillingham)
The monologue where he talks to his wife through the glass might be one of the most beautiful moments in cinema. (BillAdama)
Critic: One of the few films that has captured the beauty of the American southwest in all its rolling desert glory. (Christopher Long)
3. Der Himmel über Berlin [Wings of Desire]
Director: Wim Wenders
Points: 1131
Year rank: #1 of 1987
Voters: 8
Fans: Michel (3), Greg (4), Petri (5), BillAdama (5), Gillingham (6), Antonius (7)
Haters: Stephan (71)
Comment(s): A really beautiful take on Catholic mythology, which shows you what it means to be human by showing what it means not to be human. An eternity of dreary bliss and aesthetic blankness. (BillAdama)
Wenders manages to get #4 and #3, and with only two films in the final that’s a spectacular average of 3.5. The only director with two or more films who can beat that (or make it a tie) is Lynch, who placed 5th and still has 1 film left. (Stephan)
Critic: Wings of Desire enthralls me, and it sends me back to my life a richer person, glad to be alive, looking about at the mundane and the everyday with new appreciation. (Jeffrey Overstreet)
Sorry for the delay, had to help my girlfriend move yesterday. Finally, in an incredibly close race, the top 2:
2. Blue Velvet
Director: David Lynch
Points: 1171
Year rank: #1 of 1986
Voters: 11
Fans: Gillingham (1), BillAdama (1), John (3), Antonius (5), Michel (6), Henrik (13), Stephan (17), RockyRaccoon (23)
Haters: None
Comment(s): Creepy, but beautiful film. Lynch’s comeback after big letdown Dune. He excels in films like this as he would prove during the rest of his career. (Gillingham)
I saw this film first right at the height of my Twin Peaks obsession, before I really started watching art films. Really a thematically beautiful film, questioning the efficacy of idealism when there are truly evil individuals in the world. (BillAdama)
And so, both Lynch and Wenders have a 3.5 average; they could be considered the shared winners of the ‘best director’ award, although Mr. Scott may have something to say about that. (Stephan)
Critic: It is a work of fascinating scope and power that rivals any of the most subversive films to reach the screens during the '80s. (James Berardinelli)
1. Blade Runner
Director: Ridley Scott
Points: 1172
Year rank: #1 of 1982
Voters: 10
Fans: Greg (1), Antonius (1), Gillingham (3), Stephan (7), Petri (9), Michel (13), RockyRaccoon (15), BIllAdama (16), beefsupreme (24)
Haters: Henrik (62)
Comment(s): What an atmosphere. A film-noir set in the future, with some beautiful and quite convincing mise-en-scene. Also Dutchman Rutger Hauer's finest moment. The music by Vangelis is great too. (Gillingham)
Blue Velvet was in the lead for a short while after the first few lists, but then overtaken and left behind by Blade Runner. However, through BillAdama and Michel's lists it made a comeback to retake #1 and finally beefsupreme changed that around again. Eventually the two films ended up within 1 point of eachother, making this the most exciting race for #1 in the film polls so far. (Stephan)
Critic: This is perhaps the only science-fiction film that can be called transcendental. (Owen Gleiberman)
Lots of movies I have to see !
Great presentation as usual but well, if Blue Velvet really is the 2nd best movie of the decade, I don't feel like I'm missing that much. Don't get me wrong, I liked it and found it very interesting, even in the things I did not like which I think is great, but also well, explicity tells the issues : there were things I did not like.
Blade Runner was my 62th out of 62...gotta see it a third time!
Thanks Stephan, great presentation!
I haven't seen 6 of the top 10. I've had Blade Runner for a long time and haven't watched it.
It used to be the case that watching these older movies wasn't a very good experience because of VHS or crappy DVD transfers but now that things are getting released in HD whether it's Bluray or streaming, it's easier to go back and watch these movies as they were intended to be seen. I like the look of this list even though I've only seen about 1/3 of it. It seems more up my alley than a few other 80's lists I've looked at.
Thanks for the great show Stephan!
I have to go all the way down to 29 to find a movie I haven't seen yet. (And my brother got me Amadeus for Christmas)
I'm surprised Blade Runner won by only one point, it's pretty much cemented as one of the most popular movies of all time this side of The Godfather.
I like it a lot more now that I focus on the questions of freedom and the nature of the soul. When I first saw it years ago I didn't like it as much because I think some of the action scenes are badly choreographed. (Like, there are multiple times the replicants have him dead to rights, but instead of finishing him off they jump off him or something and give him a free shot at them.)
Are we still planning to do that bracket game with the top 8 from 00s, top 8 from 90s, top 8 from 80s, and top 8 from 70s after the 70s poll?
Nice job. I guess I've got some watching to catch up on. I haven't seen about 30 of these movies, including 7 in the top 20.
Great job Stephan!
Wonderful top 10. I think my list wasn't very different from the final list, as you can see my name very often in the first three places of the top-10 films fans.
Thanks Stephan!
The top 6 is great.
I thought Brazil would have more fans (or less haters...).
And I'll try again to watch some Bela Tarr's movies.
Thanks everyone, it's been a pleasure. I am definitely planning to do some sort of 'grand final' with the winners of the decade polls, but I was thinking we should perhaps go on into the years before the '70s.
Results for every year and the finals are available here.
See you in the '70s everyone!